Post by captainobvious on Jun 26, 2015 20:28:34 GMT
The Philadelphia 76ers seem to be off to a prominent start. Their team had been pretty solid last year with a lineup of Tim Hardaway/Walt Williams/LaPhonso Ellis/Vlade Divac/Shaq O'Neal. The team managed to make the playoffs and they were primed to only be better the following year. Training camps would be coming soon and it would be prime time for the youngsters to get better. GM Captain Obvious decided that he wasn't going to settle for mediocrity the following season. He wanted to make sure that his lineup the following year would be significantly better than his previous team was. He was going to to it one way or another. Trades were on his mind, waivers were being watched and he only had a second round pick in the draft.
The very first thing he had on his mind was while he was sold on Shaq, being one of the most dominate big men in the league, if not the best, he wanted to move him still. He was fielding offers left, right and center. He wanted to get the most out of Shaq that he possibly could. He sifted though many of offers before he came across one offer that he really fell in love with. He had been negotiating with the Wizards and was trying to acquire the leagues MVP, Kobe Paras. He tried all he could to get him without giving up Shaq but it seems AAR wasn't having it. So Captain Obvious decided that he wanted the reigning MVP one way or another. He had proposed Shaq straight up for the MVP. At first AAR was interested, but he wanted to do something else involving him getting LaPhonso Ellis in the deal too. Captain Obvious wanted to keep ahold of Ellis and told him he would be interested in just a straight swap of Shaq for Paras. Of course AAR had to throw in someone for cap purposes, but it was there that Captain Obvious started his plan. Kobe Paras would be the focal point of his team and he would build the team around him. He knew that if he was going to get the most out of Kobe, he was going to have to run an outside offense.
The first domino happened when Captain Obvious had gotten the chance to make Tim Hardaway NBA ready. He would ship out the money to make sure Timmy got the training that he needed to become better. Tim knew that he had a lot of work to do and he was on board for this. Tim's offensive game would get better and his passing got bumped up too. He recently just signed a huge extension with the team in the off-season which was basically 5 years for $86 million. Many people questioned why he would be getting paid this much but GM Captain Obvious knew that it was going to be the right amount to keep his star point guard in Philly. The off-season had been nice to Tim as it has seen his production be amplified and it seems he is primed for his best season so far in his career. He would be more of a focal point in this offense despite not being an option for the team.
Vlade Divac also is one who benefited from the Shaq trade as well. Vlade would go on to move to the starting center position where he could man the paint. Last season he was starting at the power forward spot and it wasn't the best place for him. Despite playing next to the best center in the league, it just seemed like he wasn't playing to his full potential. The training camps also had a very positive effect on Vlade as it saw his offensive game get a little better. His defense was also good enough as he would be playing next to LaPhonso who is also a stud on defense. So far in the young season, Vlade is averaging 2.7 BPG. He is hoping that his BPG will stay around that most of the season and it should help this team out.
All in all this team has improved majorly over the course of one off-season under GM Captain Obvious. With a starting lineup of Hardaway/Paras/Williams/Ellis/Divac, this team is already off to a 6-1 start. Hopefully they can continue their success through the rest of the season and this team can win at least 60 games on the year. The improvement is something that has been long overdue and he is aiming huge with the Finals in his mind. Last years team has nothing on this years team and all I can say is that it was worth it paying Timmy his earned money. The season is young but here is to the rest of the season and hoping that the 76ers can make some noise in the playoffs.
